iPad Air 4 Battery Drain

i went through tech support steps and service. Tech said likely software as diagnostics are fine. I went through Amazon for refund. Perhaps stupidly I bought my third iPad Air 4. It’s battery is performing very well. I would estimate as much as three times better with only 2-3% drain in standby with wi fi Bluetooth off over 8hours.

my replacement device is on ios14.2 and I will not be updating. Ios14.3 and ios14.4 doesn’t seem to have fixed battery drain issues for those affected. it seems to have introduced a whole load of issues for lots of iPad users. Rushed software I suspect. Has got a lot of bad press around battery drain on the iPhone12 already, which I would suspect they have prioritised.

so my problem is fixed for now by being back on earlier software. I don’t believe that there was anything wrong with my last device from a hardware perspective.

had the same problem with the brand new IP4 but i kept calling customer support until i must have logged in about 10 calls, if it still under warranty they will replace the device, do it, this is a defect batch and they know. they will just give you intructions on how to return it, it must have took about a month since i have no local apple store here in the philippines, but still, got a new replacement ipad 4 air now and is without any problem at all or whatsoever. best of luck, patience is the key.

I contacted Apple again to see if they have any info about battery drain issues w/ iPad Air 4 and the tech said he's heard very few people report any problems. If you are having these issues (and can verify it isn't due to things like background apps, updates, etc.), I strongly suggest contacting Apple via their free online chat support feature to report your battery drain problems.

Here's the link: https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=psp&PRKEYS=PF22

(click on Battery & Charging, Battery Questions & TroubleShooting, and then click on CHAT). You will need your serial number which can be found in Settings. Usually takes them about 1~2 minutes to connect with a rep.

The more of us report these battery drain issues, the more likely Apple will actually acknowledge an issue and hopefully look into it and fix it.

An update. I set up a brand new iCloud account. I dfu reset and now the iPad battery is behaving as I would expect. So this is an iCloud related bug. I don’t know what settings but will get onto Apple tomorrow and see if they can recommend any steps so that I can use my actual iCloud account. Not very impressed with apple and recent software.

BeefShandy wrote:

1. Watching Youtube/Netflix videos for 1hr 20 mins, battery power was consumed at ~12-15% per hour, which seems OK

2. When in standby mode, screen switched off, no background apps running, and a few possible battery-consuming features/settings disabled, battery power was consumed at a rate of ~4% per hour, which is shockingly high.

3. In standby mode, screen off, no background apps, but with every possible battery draining setting/feature switched off including Bluetooth, but still with WiFi enabled, consumption dropped to a very reasonable ~1/2% per hour.

Just replying to my own post from the nearly 4 months ago right at the start of this thread....

I'm convinced this is a software issue. I've continued to use my iPad Air 4 as described in "scenario 3" above: I disabled all sorts of options that I suspected might be battery draining. Since doing that 4 months ago, my battery life has been consistently excellent due to the power consumption during standby periods becoming miserly and dropping to a trickle...

Sadly, I've no idea which specific feature - or features - that I disabled led to the massive reduction in standby power consumption, but I do know that one or more of them was the culprit and disabling ut/them did the trick. Sorry not to be of more specific help, but for anyone frustrated I'd experiment with your settings, selectively disabling things that you don't need but which you think my be power consumers.

I was able to do this with my iPad because I only use it in a limited way, and disabling a bunch of superflous (to me) features didn't in any way impair my usage of the device.

Chat with support, let them go through remote diagnostics and after they won’t find anything wrong with your device, insist on in-store appointment with technician. When you get to the store handle the device to technician and let him deal with it. Even if his diagnostic test won’t show any malfunction of device hardware, he or she would be physically able to see the abnormal battery draining and most likely exchange your device for a new one.

Well.. diagnostic didnt found anything remotly.

I have full reset my ipad (via iTunes with fully new downloaded iOS Software) and kept it clean (no installation of any app - version 14.5).

Still about 10-15% battery drainage in standby.

No it went to hardware support via DPD. Hopefully they will replace this asap.

Apple always tries to charge me money but due to consumer laws, this is purely no fault from my end and they need to fix it.

I really don’t know. DUG1138 got his replaced. But it seems like messed up battery life is an issue with the iPad air 4.https://www.cnet.com/how-to/ways-to-improve-ipad-battery-life/

you can try to make sure that you have the latest software, and also, see what apps are hogging the battery. To do update software, open settings, press general, press software update. You need to have, I believe it is, 50 percent battery in order to do the update.

and to check what apps are battery hogs, open settings, scroll down and press battery.

now, I’m not saying that apps are the issue. But if it is an app, then try updating ALL of your apps. Open App Store, press your photo in the top right, once in the next menu, drag down from your name and photo to force a refresh. Then, press update app. Once all of the apps have finished updating, restart the iPad. Hole the power key until you see a menu pop up. Follow the instructions and slide to power off. Wait 30 seconds, and hole the power button to turn it back on.

My complaint for now it’s actually I am using the iPad more than usual and that’s why perhaps I noticed poorer battery life in comparison with air 3, however I haven’t experienced any significant battery drain overnight or when not in use. I can recommend you to delete the iPad and set it again as new device not from back up iCloud and this may help you a lot. If not best to buy Apple care in case you out of return period so you can keep coming back to Apple for repair or exchange plus you will have another year of warranty and accidental damage cover. 👍

As there is a new complaint on the same issue this morning, I wanted to say that I tried the trick suggested by a previous participant in this thread (whose comment I cannot find) - I let the battery run down to under 10% and then charged it fully to 100%. Since I did tha about 36 hours ago my iPad Air lost only 1% battery, albeit when not in use! He said it worked for him. I will keep a close eye on it while I wait to receive my new USB-A - USB-C cord so that I can do a factory reset if need be. if it continues as is, it'll be fine. I was told, by Apple;s online chat suppor that I replacement would be the next step if a factory reset doesn't fix things...

Draining Lithium Ion batteries to 0% is not good for them (I know.... I am an electrical engineer) and will shorten their life in the long run. Doing so allows the electrolyte in the battery to start to slightly powderize like dry salt crystals instead of remaining a liquid. The 'happy' point for this type of battery is when charged b/w 40% to 80% range. Keeping it at 100% plugged-in all the time is not optimal either and draining all the way to 0% is not good.

Based upon my own experiences, and seeing what others are reporting (on the Apple forum and other 3rd party forums), it seems our battery drain issues are either an iPadOS issue or a hardware issue within the iPad or a combo of both. I see many of us have reported battery drain of 3~10% with the unit completed shut down overnight, too. It seems that replacing the iPad (which is what Apple seems to be offering in most cases) isn't resolving the issue either as the replacement iPads have the same hardware and iPadOS that the original Air 4's have. Maybe the more iPads that are replaced will finally alert Apple that there is a problem.

Incidentally, you can buy cheaper USB-C to USB-A cords on Amazon and other sites compared to the $19 ones on Apple's website. I got 2 cords for $13 on Amazon and had them the next day. It is sort of mind-boggling that Apple sells our iPads with USB-C ports but doesn't supply the cord to connect to our computers... only the cord to connect to their supplied power adapter (which is not USB-A on the power adapter end).

I did as the support dude said and erased everything. Only logged into my iCloud and set it up manually after that (no restoring from backup). It still killed my battery as it had been for about a week or so, but as of a couple of days ago, everything is normal.. Kinda odd.

I may be a bit off track in that some of you are having a far worse battery drain than I had. However, I had to report how mine seems to have been fixed.

When I bought the iPad Air I also upgraded to iPhone 12 Pro Max and its battery seemed OK at first, then started to drain. Apple did a remote scan on it, and said it was fine. they did say that it can be useful to reset wifi settings after an O/s update so I did that, and the iPhone is now holding power perfectly...SO

I did the same thing with my iPad and recharged it to 100%. This morning, it was still sitting at 100%.

Worth a try if you haven't done it already.

In my case it was a hardware problem. I suggest people either contact Apple Support (phone, chat, store) or the store where they got the iPad and push for a replacement (try anything the techs suggest and when that fails ask for a replacement). That took care of my problem. Every iPad Air 4 sold to date should still be under warranty.

Why don't you return it? I just did it. Mine after 8 hours idle, 50% of the battery is gone.

It was brand new, I think we should not try to find a work around otherwise apple is not going to take any action on this.